If Quienessha and Buffy are selected to room together, the system works.
Incoming first-year students for Duke University’s class of 2022 will not have the opportunity to choose their roommate after the school decided students were choosing roommates with “very similar backgrounds to their own.”
“In the last few years, we’ve seen increasing numbers of students who have pre-selected roommates, often with very similar backgrounds to their own,” an announcement letter reads. “While this may make the transition to college seem somewhat easier, we’ve also seen that this can work against your having the best educational and social experience in the long term.”
he letter, which was emailed specifically to Duke’s incoming freshman class, was written by University Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta as well as Dean and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Stephen Nowicki.
“Among the principles that drives our first-year design is offering the best opportunity for you to meet and interact with students who have very different backgrounds from your own,” Moneta and Nowicki state.
The university appears very confident that placing inclusivity, in this case administratively forced, as a desideratum for future success is most beneficial for students. Not all students feel the same way.
Ryan Briggs, an undergraduate student and Vice President of the Duke Black Student Alliance, believes the policy change may force students into a scenario where “institutionally a roommate holds much more power over them.”
“I love the idea of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds and races coming together because that’s how cultural competency happens. But, as a black person coming from a low socioeconomic background, the potential of living with a rich white male is terrifying,” Briggs tweeted.